Monday, July 25, 2016

Well ya know this week was just awesome! We got transfer calls on Friday and elder tuimoloau and I are staying and finishing up his 12 week training! Transfer calls aren't as exciting when you know you're both staying! I think the next one will be more exciting because I will probably go! One super funny thing is Elder Tuimoloau sees family literally everywhere we go! He's related to some people in the Ward and last Monday we were walking through Walmart and he saw his cousin! So funny!

Wednesday we got to go the temple which was pretty awesome! It's nice be in the anchorage area because you get to go to the temple each transfer!

The Ward is doing good! Angelica is a 12 year old girl we have been teaching and she is now being baptized in Saturday! Super cool! She is in a part member family and is awesome and literally remembers everything we teach her! One of our other investigators is Kayla! She is the girlfriend of our Ward mission leaders son! They have 3 kids together! It's been hard to teach and baptize her because they aren't married but they have now decided to get married so they will have the bishop do it and we will finish lessons and baptize her! They want to get sealed as a family so when they do that they will have the big celebration!

For all the people that are hot back in Utah... It was 62 here on Friday! And I must say it was pretty dang awesome!!! Haha We went on exchanges this week. I went with elder berenson in our area and he's a stud! He's from Lincoln California which is like 30 minutes from Sacramento which is pretty cool!

A year ago today I was on my way to Samoa! It's so weird to think about! Crazy how fast time flies!

Well this week was pretty fun! Thanks for all you do for me! You're all awesome!

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

This week was pretty awesome! We got to do some fuuuunnnn stuff!! Last p day we played basketball with our zone so you can imagine it was a pretty awesome p day for me!

This week we got to meet with a lot of new people and got lots of referels so that's always a good thing! Our biggest struggle is getting people to church! We have lots of people that have taken the lessons previously and we meet with them now and they just won't come to church! So you can imagine we have lots and lots of lessons explaining the importance and why we come to church. God wants you at church!

On Friday we had zone conference! Which is just a dandy ole time! 10 till 6 of trainings! But it was actually really awesome. The zone leaders gave a training about how we teach everyone that God is our loving Heavenly Father but do we really believe that for ourselves? And about the atonement and how we all need to use it! And that we are ALL sons and daughters of God. President trained us on he lords time how 1000 years for us is 1 day for him. So 2 years for us is about 35 seconds for him. So when you account for the time we sleep and meetings and studies... We are the lords missionaries for about 11.66 seconds. Crazy. So the whole point of the training was to make use of our time because it's so short. And then the APs and STLs trainings were about how we sometimes live below our potential meaning how we have so many tools that we have been given to help us so are we using them the best we can. It was really awesome and we learned so much about what we can do to become better! Now we just have to make sure we apply what we learned!

If any of you have the chance go read or watch, "the purifying power of gethsemane" by Bruce R Mckonkie! It is the best talk ever! It's his last talk he ever gives and especially watch the last 2 minutes of it. This week I have watched it everyday and I learned literally 5 new things each time I listen to it!

Well overall this week was just dandy! Love you guys and thanks for everything you do for me!

Monday, July 11, 2016

First of all happy birthday to my dad! You're getting old! Haha I have the best dad ever!

We had lessons with all of our investigators this week so that was a good thing! Our struggle is just getting them to church! They would be ready and progressing if they would just come to church!

There was a big riot going on down the road on Friday! It was sweet! We guess there's been a lot of black people being shot so they had a big riot and chanting black lives matter! We were going to OYM in it but we decided maybe not! But it was like this tunnel of people when we drove through them and it was awesomeness!

We had zone meeting this week on Friday and it was awesome! The stake president came and talked to us and then the zone leaders talked about loving everyone! It was a really good training and kind of hit everyone right in the heart! They asked everyone if they loved America and then would they die for America and then turned the questions to do you love God and then would you die for God? And of course everyone said yes but then you really really think about it and would you? Or would you die for just the world? It was an eye opener for sure! We also read a quote from Bruce r mckonkie and it said how missionaries and apostles have the same calling and same priesthood and everything! Cool thought!

On Saturday we were OYMing in mountain view and there was a little shade spot and there was like 20 natives that were hanging out there and most of them were drunk. I thought it would be super fun to go talk to all of them and we walked up to them and like half of them are asking how many wives we have and why we are dressed nice and just yelling random stuff and we talked to them for like 20 minutes and by the end they were saying they like the Mormons and stuff like that so that's awesome! In the midst of all them was this guy named Ferrell and he was white! Haha He has a super cool little black dog named blackie and he was asking us some questions about the church and he wasn't drunk by the way. He stood up and asked if he could talk to us somewhere where everyone wasn't being dumb and asked a few more questions and he wants us to come back and teach him! He was awesome and sadly we had to pass him off to the other elders but it was still a super cool experience. So moral of the story for every 20 drunk native people you find there is one that wanting to change!

Well that was my week this week! Thanks for all the emails and for everything you guys do for me! Love you guys!

Monday, July 4, 2016

Well this week has been really awesome! We have gotten lots done!! One of the super cool things that happened to us this week was we had a Ward party on Saturday with our Ward and lake Otis the other Samoan Ward! We were at the park on Saturday and it was awesome! Tons of good food and cultural dances, music and games! And there was even lots of missionary work that came from it!

Another cool thing that happened to us this week was our Ward almost woke up and now they want to help us so much more with missionary work! It's crazy! I'm not sure what happened but all of a sudden yesterday at church everyone was telling us families and friends that we could go see of theirs and lots of members told us to call them anytime to help with lessons and all that good stuff! It was cool!

We didn't get the opportunity to do as much service this week but we did lots and lots of OYMing to people and I tell you what that is seriously the funnest thing to do! You never ever know what you're going to get! I met like 2 Joseph smiths! Haha!

The training is going great! It's really cool because when you train it's like you yourself get trained into a better and more effective missionary too! I think I may have learned more than elder Tuimoloau has! Haha my studies this week I have really been reading the Jesus the Christ and if that doesn't get the gears turning in your head I don't know what will! I have learned so much from it!

Our investigators are doing good! The family with 6 kids is doing great! We got to visit with them this week and teach them the commandments so that was really cool! They are actually moving soon but luckily it's within our area! William is doing good. We stopped by this week and he didn't read what we asked him to read so we read it with him and really focused on the importance of finding out for yourself and keeping and the importance of commitments so hopefully he read! Angleica is doing good! We didn't get to meet with her because she was up in wasilla all week so that's a bummer but we will this week!

Happy 4th of July! "I usually don't eat a braut, hamburger, and a steak!.... But it is 4th of July! And I need the energy if I'm going to start blowing crap up!" -Jim gaffigan

I can't believe it's the 4th of July already! I remember a year ago today I was in the Mtc and it was probably one of the hardest nights because I missed my family so much! All was well! Overall this week was really awesome! The sun being out all the time is probably the coolest thing since iced water! Thanks for everything you guys do and continue to do for me! You're all in my prayers and remember God is at the helm!